Ban Asbestos Saskatchewan

A presentation made by Bob Sass and President of the Saskatoon & District Labour Council Brian Nixon made to city council on July 16, 2007

Subject:  Presentation to Saskatoon  City Council, July 16/07

 

Thank you, your Worship and Members of City Council.

 

My name is Brian Nixon and I am the President of the Saskatoon and District Labour Council.  With me tonight is Mr. Bob Sass, the Chair of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, Ban Asbestos Committee.


The committee’s mandate is to participate in the organization of a national Ban Asbestos Canada committee for the purpose of lobbying the Federal government to ban the mining of asbestos in Quebec and it’s exports to poorer third world countries, such as India, Indonesia and Taiwan, with “just transition” and compensation for the miner’s, their families and their communities.

 
Our initiative is inspired by the declaration by the World Health Organization of the United Nations, that all kinds of asbestos are carcinogenic and that an estimated 100,000 or more people will die annually because of exposure to this class one carcinogen.
 

This chilling announcement was and is supported by the International Labour Organization, a tripartite labour-management-government committee of the United Nations and the International Agency on Research on Cancer, a United Nations research organization established to review all the world’s empirical studies pertaining to cancer.

 

Today, all independent public interest scientists and the major scientific bodies support the ban of asbestos based on the fact that there is no safe level of exposure that prevents risk from asbestos related respiratory diseases, lung cancer, and the cancer of the pleural lining.

 

Further, students of occupational health readily acknowledge that asbestos is the most disastrous occupational disease in the history of the Factory Acts and occupational health public policy.  It also is a major environmental and public health catastrophe.

 

Over 40 countries have banned all kinds of asbestos which includes Chrysotile, or the white asbestos produced in Quebec.  The European Union prohibits all of its 27 member states from participating in the export of this deadly carcinogen to third world countries where those who handle it are without a developed regulatory system to monitor the asbestos.

 

This is, of course, a moral gesture and a human response to the fact that cancer of the pleural lining, which is always associated with asbestos exposure and is always fatal, results in such excruciating pain, that the victim and their families often pray for death as a relief.

 

In Canada, the latency period - the time of exposure to the diagnosis of asbestos related diseases – can be anywhere from 25 to 35 years.  Thus the spouse loses a partner when they are preparing for their retirement years.

 

In India or Indonesia, the latency period may be much shorter because of childhood diseases, poor nutrition and a damaged immune system resulting in the victim leaving a young family with no Medicare or compensation.  This is the human side of the subject at-hand.

 

Canada has gone so far in its defense of its current asbestos policy as to organize countries against a United Nations convention that requires exporting countries to provide scientific information to importing states pertaining to the hazards associated with the product.  This is no more right to know requiremement.

 

The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour Ban Asbestos Saskatchewan committee is now appealing to municipalities to call for the ban following the example of Sarnia, Ontario.  We realize this is a moral gesture but, at the same time it will give enormous support to a national movement in coalition with environmentalists, public health and social justice activists, as well as cancer prevention groups.

 
As such, the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour and the District Labour Councils are continuing in taking the initiative in the organization of a National Ban Asbestos Canada (BAC) organization to lobby the federal government to end its policy of mining and exporting this killer to poorer third world countries. 

 
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 100,000 human beings die each year because of exposure to Asbestos. Consequently, the SFL policy is in the tradition of Medicare and the introduction of worker rights as an integral part of workplace health and safety.  The banning of Asbestos is simply unfinished business.

 
At the April 28th Day of Mourning Events here in Saskatoon, His Worship stated “one workplace death is one death too many”.  It is with this in mind that the Saskatoon and District Labour Council asks that this current city Council take the lead in Saskatchewan and do two things:
 

First, pass a solid resolution calling for the ban of asbestos in commercial products and second, create the opportunity to cosponsor, with the Labour Council, a one day educational on the recognition and handling of asbestos for both trade unionists as well as public health officers.


Upon referral of this to your Committee, both Bob Sass and I would avail ourselves to provide whatever back round information they would require.

 

Thank you very much for your attention regarding these two matters.